Bailiff chasing my wife despite debt being settled

bazster

Contemporaneous notes are good, but as far as I can tell you haven't even made any written demands of the council.

It's conceivable that this might end up at the Local Government Ombudsman, who can force the council to reimburse you for any losses caused by their inaction or incompetence. If you can show that you demanded, in writing, written confirmation from the council that the tickets are null and void then, if the council can't show that they replied, it's not going to look good for them!

Mackhie

bazster wrote: »

Contemporaneous notes are good, but as far as I can tell you haven't even made any written demands of the council.

It's conceivable that this might end up at the Local Government Ombudsman, who can force the council to reimburse you for any losses caused by their inaction or incompetence. If you can show that you demanded, in writing, written confirmation from the council that the tickets are null and void then, if the council can't show that they replied, it's not going to look good for them!

I haven't made any written demands as yet. At the moment I am compiling notes on what was said.

It was 21st October when I first saw the Council on the matter (prior to that my wife was dealing, or rather thought she had dealt, with it), which was also the day that the bailiff first came round with a Final Notice (or rather two, one HAS been quashed since).

When I asked for written confirmation, I took the man I spoke to at the Council at his word that he would send it.

As soon as I'm done compiling these notes (which wont take long) I will send an email to the Council requesting written confirmation.

Thanks again

Mackhie

Bailiff came round to seize goods whilst I was on the phone to the Council.

I have just received written confirmation by email that the case has been cancelled and the warrant has been recalled.

Relieved, but nerves still jangling.

Thank you all for your help and support.

bazster

Phew! Did you speak to the bailiff and did he agree to go away and not come back?

Mackhie

bazster wrote: »

Phew! Did you speak to the bailiff and did he agree to go away and not come back?

No. I was on the phone at the time to someone at the Council who was dealing with it more thoroughly. Not the person I spoke to but his senior (in fact it was the woman I spoke to on the phone on
the day the bailiff first arrived, but wasn't available when I went into the Council offices.

As I was speaking to her I saw him walking away, and I did ask whether I should let him know that she had dealt with it, to which she said no.

Apparently, what had happened was that the PCN was cancelled on the system, but the warrant hadn't been recalled due to them typing in the wrong PCN number (one digit was out).

Coupon-mad

And still you have nothing in writing to confirm that - you didn't ask her to pop you a one-liner email to confirm?

On your other thread I replied earlier to explain where you both went wrong here - basically you NEVER APPEALED. You didn't follow the written process at all, so the PCN wasn't appealed. I also said NEVER deal with these things on the phone, never! Next time don't make that mistake!

Well done (as long as the bailiff doesn't come back again and you still have no paper trail). Phone calls are fairly useless as proof when a bailiff is outside your door at 8am on a Saturday.

Mackhie

STOP phoning up! With a PCN, telephone calls don't cut it, you have no paper trail and no proof that any Council employee has said anything! You must NEVER step outside the set appeals procedure which was not this:

Quote:
This was questioned at the time, she even went into the Council offices within 5 minutes of the fine being issued and was told that it was a mistake
...so, what has gone wrong is, she didn't actually appeal then, did not send an appeal as the PCN required. You can't do these things verbally, the back of a PCN tells you the statutory procedure for appealing in writing, any parking ticket. Never believe a verbal assurance, this left you NOT having appealed, left you exposed.

The way to address this is in writing or by urgent email to someone high up in the Council (I appreciate you may have to phone up to get their name and email address but NO conversations should be taking place like this, just verbally). You have to complete certain forms to reset the matter back to an appealable stage now, based on the fact (presumably) you never received a Notice to Owner, or a Charge Cerrtificate or an Order for Recovery.

Quote:
I am considering hiding my wife's car round at a friend's house and securing my house so that the Bailiff cannot gain entry.
Yes indeed, we would suggest you hide the car and not just around the corner (ideally inside a garage). Bailiffs cruise around looking for a vehicle nearby.

Quote:
Can I trust the Council to sort this out, having been assured three times now that the matter was solved? What should I do?
NO, you can't until you have done the forms with the TEC (pepipoo will advise). Hide the car and post on pepipoo for advice on the forms you need to set this back to NTO stage, then they can help you do the appeal that should have been done in writing all along.

HTH

I have moved this here from the duplicate thread.

bazster

CM, he did say above he has an emailed confirmation of the withdrawal of the warrant.

Mackhie

bazster wrote: »

CM, he did say above he has an emailed confirmation of the withdrawal of the warrant.

Yes. I did. However, I have e-mailed back saying that it is insufficient and requested it to be resent with a carbon copy sent to Rossendales, so that I know the Council has told the enforcement agency, and also to send a proper formal letter signed and posted confirming the cancellation.

I can see Coupon-mad's point, and I share her frustration. The Council will only do the bare minimum, and even then only when hard pressed and shown that you mean business.

tykesi

I can see Coupon-mad's point, and I share his frustration

Her* frustration...